[ih] How the Soviet Union Sent Its First Man to the Internet in 1982

[Dmitry Burkov]

We did a small contribution to Asia Internet History book

https://sites.google.com/site/annexinternethistory/home/1append-Russia.docx?attredirects=0&d=1

which covered this period too..


Dmitry Burkov
> On Dec 30, 2015, at 3:56 AM, Vint Cerf <vint at google.com> wrote:
> 
> who ever wrote this must not have done any homework. Internet was not turned on until Jan 1983. This sounds like simply a direct modem link to a server in Stockholm. 
> 
> v
> 
> 
> On Tue, Dec 29, 2015 at 5:24 PM, Joly MacFie <joly at punkcast.com <mailto:joly at punkcast.com>> wrote:
> https://globalvoices.org/2015/12/29/how-the-soviet-union-sent-its-first-man-to-the-internet-in-1982/ <https://globalvoices.org/2015/12/29/how-the-soviet-union-sent-its-first-man-to-the-internet-in-1982/>
> 
> (excerpt)
> 
> The terminal used by Klyosov to join the conference was a Soviet ES-EVM computer <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ES_EVM>(designed from blueprints stolen from IBM). It was connected to the only modem supposed to officially exist in all of the USSR: an antediluvian 360 baud/s device. In comparison, this device had a capacity 22 times less than the old 56k modems that were widely used in the early 2000s: the text display rate on the 360 baud/s modem was of one letter per second.
> This precious modem was protected by a security presence so impressive that Klyosov later wrote he had not seen such since his childhood, when he lived with his parents on the Kapustin Yar missile test polygon <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kapustin_Yar> under Stalin.
> 
> 
> An EVM ES-1033 computer with control panel. These were developed in the USSR in the 1970s-1980s. Image courtesy of computer-museum.ru <http://computer-museum.ru/>.
> Surrounded by many soldiers, the computer room itself was empty. So when Klyosov logged in for the first time, he was alone when these words appeared on the screen: “You are connected to the University of Stockholm server. Welcome.”
> 
> Once logged in, Klyosov was free to talk and exchange any information he wanted, without any state control. Neither the fact that the computer room was surrounded by military guards, nor the fact that Klyosov was forbidden from going abroad had any influence. We can imagine how the situation created by this single connected Soviet computer and its only user might seem paradoxical. Just remember that the Soviet Union in the early 1980s remained a heavily cloistered state, with the authorities attempting at all costs to stop the transfer to the West of any kind of “dissident” cultural products (samizdat publications among them). In such a context, Klyosov’s case was truly exceptional.
> 
> 
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